It is not a myth. Someone displayed where in the code this was written a while ago. Maybe a coder could elaborate?

Dexterity helps to offset the effect an enemy's agility might have. An enemy with high agility gives a penalty to the chance to hit him, and high dexterity can lower that penalty. So it does help hitting agile enemies.
In the code it is called 'Dodge' (though you cannot really dodge a bullet). See it as an enemy ducking and weaving, and dexterity helps following those movements...

Should be. But I haven't checked on that one. I linked directly to the latest update (which isn't in the first post at the moment) which has the 2445 download. I would use that myself rather than the 2296 version.

Just make a clean JA2 install and use the latest single click installer (verified working XML editor as using it at the moment). If you have modified files in the Data-1.13 folder from your old install, make a new Data-xx folder (where -xx is what you want it to be called) and copy the new Data-1.13 into it. Then go back to the old one and copy your modified files over the top. Make sure it's only the modified files if you can to minimize chances of making things incompatible.

I an attempt to make a minor mod where enemy weapons would be more elaborately assigned and show in more clear tiers, where enemy elites would select their weapons from a special pool, I deigned to set up my EnemyGunChoices as following:

The idea is to ensure that the decimal tiers are never truly reached without instantly being passed in normal gameplay. They would still be higher than your current tier though, ensuring that enemy elites will still be able to select their weapons from those tiers, without going beyond to the next proper tier. I could for example setup modded weapons, or high quality weapons in those tiers, and the other tiers could still hold weapons like shotguns and like. It would allow me to ensure that normal enemies and elite enemies can upgrade parallel to eachother throughout the course of the game, without ever running the risk of finding an elite enemy equiped with a remington shotgun or finding a normal enemy with an Abakan assault rifle.

Key to whether or not this will actually work as intended though is if the program is capable of reading the demical progress requirements correctly. Does anyone know if it does?

Well...I actually have no idea about the VFS except the easy MOD switching principle...

The VFS works in layers and collects files from the top down.
Let's say it finds a weapons.xml in a folder higher up (a mod's folder, for example), then it will disregard all weapons.xml files below that layer (for example the one found in data-1.13/TableData).
And if you edit a file at a lower layer that also exists at an upper layer, then your changes will not show up. You'd need to edit the file at the upper layer to achieve any effects.

I do not know if that is really our problem, but at the moment I do not have any other idea why your change would not show up (other than that you forgot to save your change ).

ok, yes i was aware about that. but the strange thing is that I have changed the range of HK CAWS from 15 to 18 and it worked, when I tried to reduce its rate of fire per 5 AP from 2 to 1, it doesn't! So, there is only two weapons.xml in the JA2 folder now, one is the vanilla one, the other one is the DBB one, the DBB one should have the higher priority, right?

The general idea is that you should NOT modify the data directories at all. Just copy the file you want to change into you user profile directory (eg. Profiles/UserProfile_JA2113) and modify it there.

If you want you can create your own Data directory and have all you files there (although the profile directory should be good enough for small changes). You would have to tinker with the VFS configuration though (it's not that hard).

The general idea is that you should NOT modify the data directories at all. Just copy the file you want to change into you user profile directory (eg. Profiles/UserProfile_JA2113) and modify it there.

Shall he make a new folder, incorporate that into the VFS-setup, and copy the weapons.xml from the DBB-folder to this new folder for just correcting a single value?

That sounds like overkill (and it as). But for such a small modification he doesn't have to do that. He can take his user profile directory, it's as good as any other data directory. With one difference. The user profile directory is (most probably) on top of the profiles stack, so that is where the VFS looks first for a file (conceptually speaking).

If you make modifications in the data directory of some mod, then this can have negative effects on other mods (doesn't have to). For example, you have the "mod-chain" [Vanilla,v1.13,A,B,C] and you change some files in mod 'A'. Later you want to try another combination, e.g. [Vanilla,v1.13,A,E,F]. Now it is possible that mod 'E' is some kind of extension to mod 'A' and expects it to behave in a certain way, but since you modified A's files this assumption is no longer true. And it's easier for the mod provider to check only against the official versions of other mods. If you separate your changes from the official data, these mod combination can peacefully coexist. The only thing you would have to do is to switch the user profiles (one user profile per mod combination).

Logisteric

as i'm working on a mod and plan to release it in both ways (vfs and 'copy to data-1.13') - where do i find a maccie-proof vfs-guide?

Is there a non-maccie-proof vfs-guide? Do you need this guide or the potential users of you mod?

first of all i need it to learn what's going on, 'cause i have to put everything into the apropriate folders when i release it - if i, as your personal beta-tester, understand it you may offer it to the public :diabolical:

first of all i need it to learn what's going on, 'cause i have to put everything into the apropriate folders when i release it

You want to have two configurations, one vfs config and one directory that should be copied over the data-1.13 directory? Then create your directory Data-Logisteric and replicate the directory structure of the Data directory with your files. You can use this directory for both configurations. For the vfs case you only have to add a vfs config file.

Logisteric

if i, as your personal beta-tester, understand it you may offer it to the public :diabolical:

as i see it that vfs-config file seems to be the problem - everyone is afraid of it. i have not yet tried vfs. that the structure has to be the same is obvious.

the idea is: extraxt iArulco.7z either to data-1.13 or to a folder data-iArulco on the same level as data-1.13 if you do the latter also d/l '??' and expandt to '??' it's exactly here where it starts to get interesting.

as i confessed i did not yet look into it, but everyone is afraid - that gives two possibilities

1. bear pit users are numbs, who can't read
2. it is difficult

as i do believe in the good in man (at least sometimes) i guess it's no 2 - so if you give me a manual that i understand (as a maccie, that is) - everyone else should probably understand it far more easily than me :diabolical:

I'm using this for my RII mod, although it's not exactly the same type of configuration that is used for other mods. They use one file to define everything. I'm using one file per mod. Anyway, to "merge" my multiple file configuration into a one file configuration i would have to copy the contents of all files into this one file and modify the "PROFILES += ..." line (that is because of the +=)

I learned to use VFS system on my own just reading the info in the ini file and checking ini file from some other mod. It didn't take long to learn how to do it. I made a custom vfs ini file that loads 3 mods in this order WF Maps -> WF Alpha item mod -> HAM 3.6. Works like a charm. Its easy and I can easily remove any of these mods without needing to reinstall the whole thing.

it's still not working out... I setup a TableData folder under the Profiles\UserProfile_JA2113\ and put the modified xmls in there, yet the shotsper5AP for CAWS stilled doesn't change from 2 to 1, which is exactly what I have changed. Does that matter if I have used the addtional AP for mercs in the ini? I have 50 addtional AP, which I know is affecting how much AP is needed for single shots.

Ok... This is just weird... is value 1 reserved for something? how comes what ever value I change is just end up with a value that is the one I changed + 1? I changed it to 100 and it ends up 101. The AP bonus does nothing to it. I've tested it. Can some one please explain this?

Initiating autofire costs 1AP, so the first shot of autofire should cost more then the following shots.

And the more AP a merc has available, the more AP a single shot will cost. You can see the opposite, too, when a merc is wounded and has less AP, a single shot costs less than what is given in the tooltips. The tooltips and infobox values are calculated with a merc in mind who has a certain amount of AP available (a 'standard' merc, so to speak).